Friday, May 14, 2010

My friend Indra Samala just brought to me a brand new piece of !!i!. Actually it was a twisty puzzle. It is called Master Pyramorphix. It looks like pyramid in shape, but it's a little bit rounded. But, unlike the Rubik's Cube, to play it, you don't twist the faces. Instead, we twist the edges! We can deform the puzzle into many kinds of abstract, or even irregular shapes, hence the name 'pyraMORPHix'.

Actually, if you examine the group of pieces that twists, it's similar to Rubik's cube in structure and in the solution. The six "edge pieces" are actually the center pieces, and they are fixed relative to each other.

Most of the computer users know this little time-waster. It is one of the most successful games on the Earth. But most of my friend cannot solve the board. The rules are simple: click on any square to uncover it, but if you uncover a mine, you're dead and have to restart the game from the beginning.

Most of my friends don't know what the numbers mean. The numbers indicates how many mines are surrounding the square. It sounds as simple as pie, but you have to use your logical reasoning ability to analyze the number patterns and know where the mines are, and which square is safe to click.

I use Minesweeper Clone 2007. It have many features that help me to become a better mine-sweeper. I use the Win9x skin because it reminds me of my childhood... my father often play the game with me sitting on his lap. I love the colorful, small numbers..

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Megaminx is one of the twisty puzzles, like Rubik's Cube, but Megaminx is dodecahedron-shaped. It has twelve pentagonal sides. There are 100,669,616,553,523,347, 122,516,032,313,645,505,168,688,116,411,019,768,627,200,000,000,000possible arrangements of colors in a Megaminx, while a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 combinations. Although the number of combinations is much greater than Rubik's Cube, and the shape is different, the solving principles are the same.

After Samala gave an example solve in front of me, I could solve it in 15 minutes. Because most of the algorithms are adapted from the 3x3 Rubik's Cube algorithms.

I just learned how to use LaTeX. LaTeX is a markup language used for typesetting with TeX. Its major features consist of macros, mathematical formulas, and automatic typesetting. The automatic typesetting (of course) makes it easier to create lengthy reports, books, papers, etc. For example, if one wants to create a table of contents, simply type \tableofcontents and TeX will add a complete table of contents.

Headache formulas, fuzzy equations can be easily added into and displayed in the document, easier than any ordinary word processors.

References (see Section x.xx) are more flexible. If we add some sections before the section we refer (thus changing the section number), we won't need to change the reference to that section. LaTeX will do it automatically.

I'm still using a text editor to edit LaTeX files, rather than WYSIWYG or WYSIWYW (wysiwy want) editor. So I have to type a lot...

Have you ever seen a 2x2x2 Rubik's Cube? Do you want to know how to solve it? (in less than 5 seconds?) You can use 3x3x3 algorithms, but this is the 2x2x2 method. It's called simplified Ortega method. There are only 12 algorithms to remember, and, with this method, if fully mastered, you can solve the cube in 5 seconds or less. But I'm too lazy to master it, I'm contented with my 8-second personal best..

Step One: Assemble the first face (it is not necessary to build one layer, just make one of the faces of the cube displays a solid color. I like white.) Then turn the cube upside-down.

Step Two: Use one of the Fridrich's OLL (Orient Last Layer) algorithms to assemble the opposite side. (blue or yellow. In Rubik's original brand cube, it's blue)

The placements of letters in the DSK are different from QWERTY. The home-row keys are changed to AOEU-ID-HTNS, not ASDF-GH-JKL. Here is the story:

QWERTY keyboards has become tradition among the computer users. Actually, the QWERTY layout is designed for old typewriters to prevent typebars from jamming. So QWERTY is obsolete since computers don't have typebars.

So, in the 1930s, Dr. August Dvorak developed his own layout and patented it. Although failed to supersede QWERTY in usage (this is the reward of being the first), DSK has become supported by a wide range of computer operating systems since 1980s.

If you cannot solve the Rubik's Cube, I won't teach you in this post, but you can see http://www.youcandothecube.com/. Even Justin Bieber can do it, so will you!

Rubik's Cube is a puzzle that shaped like a cube, colorful, and its pieces can be twisted in groups. According to the Solution Guide when I bought the Rubik's Cube Keychain, 1 out of 5 people in the world play it. Here is some excerpt from Wikipedia..

The Rubik's Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the "Magic Cube", the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toys in 1980 and won the German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle that year. As of January 2009, 350 million cubes have sold worldwide making it the world's top-selling puzzle game. It is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy. In a classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces is covered by 9 stickers, among six solid colours (traditionally white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow). A pivot mechanism enables each face to turn independently, thus mixing up the colours. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be a solid colour. Similar puzzles have now been produced with various numbers of stickers, not all of them by Rubik. The original 3×3×3 version celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2005.

Since I brought this cube the first time, my friends asked me to tell them how to solve it. I'm not a fast speedcuber, I usually solve the cube in 30-40 seconds, still far slower than Abel Brata and Erik Akkersdijk.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

History of Internet in Indonesia begins in the early 1990s. At that time, Internet networks in Indonesia were known as "paguyuban network", where the spirit of cooperation and mutual assistance feels very warm among the users. It is somewhat different with Internet in its further development, which feels more commercial and individual in some of its activities, particularly in the activities which involve e-commerce.

Since 1988, there had been Internet users in Indonesia that utilize the British CIX and US Compuserve to access the Internet.

Based on the whois notes from ARIN and APNIC, the first Internet protocol that came from Indonesia is UI-NETLAB (192.41.206.24), registered by University of Indonesia on 24 June 1988. RMS Ibrahim, Suryono Adisoemarta, Muhammad Ihsan, Robby Soebiakto, Putu, Firman Siregar, Adi Indrayanto, and Onno W. Purbo are some of the legendary names in the beginning of Internet development in Indonesia, 1992-1994. Each of them had contributed their competencies and dedication in writing Indonesia's computer network history.

Texts about existence of networks in Indonesia could be seen in some of the newspaper articles, such as KOMPAS article, entitled "Jaringan komputer biaya murah menggunakan radio" (Inexpensive computer network that uses radio technology) in the end of the year 1990. Also some short articles in Bandung Institute of Technology's Majalah Elektron (Electron Magazine) year 1989.

Around 1994, IndoNet, Indonesia's first commercial ISP, started to operate. At that time, POSTEL had not known Internet business gaps, and very few Internet users in Indonesia. Connection to Internet was done by dial-up modems by IndoNet, (a reckless step, maybe.) IndoNet was located in Rawamangun in University of Indonesia's lecturer complex, because Sanjaya's (leader of IndoNet) father was a University of Indonesia lecturer. IndoNet initially could be accessed with shell account with text mode, Lynx browser, and e-mail client Pine on AIX server.

Since 1995, some BBS's in Indonesia such as Clarissa have provided overseas Telnet access. By using Lynx remote browser, Internet users in Indonesia could access the HTTP.

The last development is e-commerce trending and public internet accessing (warnet/WARung interNET, literally means 'Internet shop' or 'Internet stall'), which supports Indonesian people to be more solid in the world of information.